Efficient immunization of populations and computers

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  • 16 July 2002
Abstract
It is well established that random immunization requires to immune a very large fraction of the population in order to prevent epidemics that spread upon contact between infected individuals. Many diseases require 80%-100% immunization (for example, Measles requires 95% of the population to be immunized). Computer networks, in particular the Internet, are also known to require almost 100% immunization to prevent spreading of viruses. On the other hand, targeted immunization of the most highly connected individuals (or computers), is efficient, but requires global knowledge of the topology of the network in question, rendering it impractical in most cases. We propose an effective strategy, based on the immunization of a small fraction of random acquaintances of randomly selected individuals. In this way, the most highly connected individuals are immunized with high probability, and the process prevents epidemics without requiring global knowledge of the network.

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